This is a series of nine short films, published by the Ashmolean Museum, entitled ‘introduction’ ‘tip of the pencil’ ‘the edge of the pencil’ ‘toned paper’ ‘drawing with a brush’, ‘measured drawing’ ‘with colour’ ‘field notes’ and ‘creativity’, that use John Ruskin’s Teaching Collection at Oxford University as a means of explaining Ruskin’s pedagogical theories of drawing, as they are set out in his 1857 ‘Elements of Drawing’. These nine films were the outcome of Farthing’s role on the AHRC funded 'Elements of Drawing' project at the University of Oxford (Principal Investigator Colin Harrison, Ashmolean print room curator). Farthing’s work on this project took forward the second phase of research that had begun when he was appointed as the first Rootstein Hopkins Chair of Drawing at the University of the Arts London in 2004. His remit as Chair was to explore all facets of the medium he describes as the translation of ‘multidimensional events that may or may not physically exist, into readable two dimensional matter’.

This research had two stages: firstly, to use UAL’s resources and expertise to enable drawing collections in museums to function effectively as teaching collections, and secondly, to develop museum teaching drawing collections as the means to engage non-specialist practitioners with a structured drawing curriculum.

The films can be viewed at http://ruskin.ashmolean.org/education/8989/9033/9132